PepsiCo’s ‘Change the Game’ campus challenge invited the youth to share innovative business ideas for sustainable plastic packaging and recycling, in line with the company’s Performance with Purpose vision. Winners from India, Tushar Vishnoi and Utkarsh Garg from IMT Ghaziabad, have been awarded a grant of US$ 100,000 to bring their idea to life. The winners also received an opportunity to start their career at PepsiCo India, as Management Trainees.

PepsiCo’s ‘Change the Game’ initiative, now it its third edition, is a much sought-after campus challenge that provides young talent a platform to share creative solutions to ‘real-life’ problem situations, with a chance to work with the company. The initiative witnessed 11,000 students from top B-schools in India putting their minds to make the world a better place by presenting solutions for sustainability.

Suchitra Rajendra - VP Human Resources India region, PepsiCo India, said, “The ‘Change the Game’ challenge aims to spot the brightest talent by inviting them to develop sustainable and viable solutions to real issues. After a very intense selection process by the jury, I am very happy to share that the team from IMT Ghaziabad is among the final winners of the challenge, that focused on solutions for sustainability this year. We are delighted to have the winners, Tushar Vishnoi and Utkarsh Garg, join PepsiCo India as Management Trainees, in addition to the
US$ 100,000 fund to bring their idea to life.”

The IMT Ghaziabad team’s winning idea is a low-cost waste management solution capable of handling 18 tonnes of plastic annually per equipment unit, while helping to save time and effort. It involves using recovered plastic in multiple applications that not only create new revenue streams and savings but also social entrepreneurship opportunities that are in line with the PepsiCo’s 2025 Sustainability Agenda.

Speaking about their achievement, Tushar Vishnoi and Utkarsh Garg said, “We are thrilled to receive this $100,000 grant to bring our project to life. The project needs intensive R&D to have a solid foundation. The implementation will require us to first study the technologies deeper with the R&D team and modify them to fit our proposed business ecosystem with the government guidelines in mind. After gathering the design specifications, we will have several prototyping and testing stages before we formalise everything for industrial grade manufacturing. Post that, we will refine our business model with the help of the senior management to get the best out of this initiative once we go live.”